Author: Olivia Cunning

Brian winked. “That Jace would never get mushy with you in front of us.”

Wincing, Trey ducked to avoid Jace’s gaze. “Sorry, Jace.”

Jace laughed. “Why would you bet that?”

“He thought it was a sure win,” Brian said. “But Trey’s never been in love, so he doesn’t know how it changes a man.”

“I have too been in love.”

Brian lifted his brows. “With who?”

Trey flushed and lowered his eyes. “No one you know.”

“That’s what I thought,” Brian said.

Was Brian really that dumb? It was obvious who Trey was in love with. The only one who didn’t recognize it was Brian. Aggie watched Trey hide his feelings behind a mischievous smile.

“Do you think Myrna will be in the mood for another one of our famous threesomes?” Trey winked at Brian.

Aggie’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. From offhand remarks, she’d always assumed Myrna was straightlaced and prudish. Apparently not.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Mills. I don’t plan on sharing her with anyone this weekend,” Brian said. “Besides, she’s off birth control now. I don’t want you guys naked within a hundred yards of her.”

“Uh, how are we supposed to shower?” Trey asked.

Brian rolled his eyes in annoyance. “You can shower, dumbass. Just make sure you wear a condom.”

Jace’s lips brushed the back of Aggie’s ear. Her amused grin faded, and she shuddered, goose bumps rising along her neck and shoulder.

“Let’s go to bed,” he whispered.

Oh, hell yeah.

Aggie took Jace’s hand and tugged him out of the booth behind her.

“You kids keep it down in there,” Trey said. “I don’t think Brian can handle the sounds of two couples getting laid when he gets none.”

“Abstinence is so not my thing,” Brian grumbled.

“I told you I’d help you with that.”

Brian shook his head. “I can help myself just fine, thankyouverymuch.”

Aggie kicked off her shoes in the aisle near the sleeping area. “Which bunk is yours?” she asked Jace.

“Depends on who is in the bedroom. Since it’s Sed, that would be the bottom bunk next to the bathroom.”

She hesitated. “You don’t have your own bunk?”

He shook his head. “There are only four, and we take turns in the bedroom, so I sleep wherever there’s an open bunk.”

She didn’t know why that made her sad, but it did. That familiar need to hug him gripped her.

Before she could embarrass him by locking him in an affectionate stranglehold, he grinned. “Since you’ve been here, I’ve been getting way more than my fair share of the comfortable bed.”

“I’ll say,” Trey said. “You dudes with the steady girlfriends always hog the bedroom.”

At the mention of the bedroom, Aggie’s attention focused on the sounds filtering through the door. Sed and Jessica were not shy about anyone hearing them, that was obvious. Jessica was particularly loud and enthusiastic, but it was Sed’s low growls of appreciation that had heat flooding Aggie’s loins.

Eric pushed Brian out of the booth. He threw his plate into the sink before storming out of the bus.

“What’s eating him?” Brian asked.

“He likes Aggie. And what’s not to like.” Trey winked at her.

“Yeah, and he liked Myrna too,” Brian said, “but he never got so bent out of shape about it.”

“I’ll go talk to him,” Jace said.

Jace was going to talk to him? But what about…? She glanced longingly at the bottom bunk.

“I’ll just be a few minutes,” he murmured into her ear. “Will you wait?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I’m pretty turned on right now. I might start without you.”

She’d been teasing, but his little growl of torment set her systems to go. “I’ll hurry.”

He kissed her and headed out of the bus after Eric.

Aggie climbed into the bunk and tugged the curtain shut. She struggled out of her pants and tossed them onto the floor. Her shirt next.

She heard Brian curse under his breath. Poor guy. She couldn’t resist making it worse for him. She slid out of her panties, and after twirling them around outside the curtain, dropped them on her growing pile of discarded clothes.

“Ah God, I can’t take this anymore,” Brian groaned.

When she dropped her bra on the floor, someone ran into the bathroom and shut the door.

“Brian, you should save that for Myrna,” Trey called down the aisle. “Or me,” he added too quietly for Brian to hear, but Aggie heard it.

***

Jace stood outside the bus, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness. This roadside park really was in the middle of nowhere. If it were a little warmer, he’d have asked Aggie to lie out under the stars. The brilliant flecks of white stood in stark contrast against the dark sky. A sliver of moon gave shadowy forms to the surrounding trees.

The gravel beside him crunched.

“Eric?”

“Not quite,” Jon muttered and pushed past him to get on the bus.

Jace noticed a strange scent around Jon, but couldn’t identify it. Not marijuana—something more chemical. Maybe he’d been cleaning a toilet.

Jace caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Eric stood leaning against the side of the bus sipping from his flask. The slim, silver container glinted in the limited moonlight.

Jace leaned beside him against the bus. The chill of metal at his back seeped through his T-shirt. He shivered. He missed his leather jacket. “You okay, man?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Eric took a long swallow from his flask and gasped when he drew it away.

“I didn’t think you’d get attached to Aggie. I just thought…” What had he thought? “She’d get more pleasure if you participated. I wanted her to enjoy really great sex. It wasn’t supposed to mean anything.”

“I’m not in love with her, if that’s what you think.”

Then what was his problem? Jace tugged on the earring in his right earlobe.

“It’s…” Eric took another long drink. “I want what you have. What Sed has. What Brian has. No one has ever loved me. Not really.”

Jace loved him—in a platonic way. He just wasn’t drunk enough to say it.

“My mother abandoned me when I was four. She gave birth to me, and even she didn’t love me.” Eric scoffed. “You’d think at least her love would be guaranteed.”

Jace considered telling Eric about his mother—how she hadn’t loved her son much either—but he couldn’t find the words. “The guys care about you.” They were family. The only family Jace had. Didn’t Eric see them that way too?

“It’s not the same. I don’t really matter—to anyone.” Eric took a deep breath. “I appreciate that you came out here to cheer me up and shit, but I’ll get over it. Tequila fixes everything.” He attempted a sip, tipping his head way back, and then upended the flask over the ground. “Figures I’d run out of numbing juice this far from civilization.”

“Wanna beer?”

“Nah. I need a few minutes to get my head on straight. Go back to Aggie.” He attempted another sip from his empty flask, sighed, and then tucked it into the inner pocket of his leather vest. “Go on. You’re bothering me.”

Jace hesitated, wanting to make Eric feel better. He knew it was stupid to feel that way, but he didn’t like Eric to be upset. “There’s something you should know about me.”

“I already know that you’re short.” Eric chuckled halfheartedly.

Jace took a deep breath. Everything was a joke with this guy. Jace pushed forward with what he had to say, even though he knew Eric would use it to make fun of him in the future. “You are the reason I am who I am today. You, Eric. You turned my life around. So if you think you don’t matter to anyone, you’re wrong. You matter to me.”

Jace pushed off the side of the bus and walked back to the entrance. He blew into his hands and clenched them into fists for warmth. The tips of his ears tingled, and his butt was numb from the cold. There was a warm and willing woman waiting for him inside. He wondered why he’d stayed in the chill for this long.

“Wait. Jace?” Eric called after him. “What do you mean I turned your life around?”

Jace had already said too much. He lifted a hand in farewell and climbed the steps to enter the bus. He was looking forward to crawling into bed with Aggie. Or he had been, until he saw Jon sitting on the floor outside her bunk with his back pressed against the wall. He was talking quietly through the curtain and toying with her discarded panties with one finger.

Jace didn’t need this shit right now. He didn’t want to fight Jon anymore. He wanted him to go away—for things to go back to the way they used to be before he got shot—before he met Aggie. Everything had been a hell of a lot easier to deal with back then. He just had to regress inside himself, and everyone left him alone. Back when he’d played with the band, but not as one of them. Yeah, easier.

But lonely.

He sighed. He didn’t want to go back to that place. Things weren’t easier now, but they were better.

Jon noticed Jace standing at the top of the steps. He said something to Aggie, stood, and brushed past Jace on his way outside. Jace wondered what kind of lie Aggie would fabricate to explain herself. The traitor.

She pushed the curtain back and peeked into the aisle. When she spotted him, she smiled and beckoned him closer with a wave. Like everything was fine. Everything was not fine. She knew how much Jace fucking hated that guy.

On his way down the aisle, Jace passed Trey watching his Greatest Moments in Baseball DVD. Jace could hear the quiet rumble of Brian’s voice from his bunk as he talked quietly on his cell phone. Sed and Jessica had fallen silent in the bedroom, which meant everyone would hear him when he confronted Aggie about Jon.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Waiting for you.”

“With Jon?”

She covered her lips with one finger. “Get in here,” she whispered. She shoved the curtain back, giving him a glimpse of her curvy, naked body. His thoughts grew thick with lust, but not so thick that she’d get off the hook that easily.

“I want a straight answer, Aggie.”

“And you’ll get one. Get in here with me.”

He sat on the edge of the bunk, slumped forward so he didn’t hit his head. “Why were you talking to him?”

“Take your boots off.”

“Aggie,” he said impatiently.

She sat up and leaned close to his ear. “Just get in here, and I’ll explain.”

He kicked off his boots and climbed into the bunk. It was a tight fit for two people, so after scooting and rearranging he ended up on his back, with Aggie on her side next to him, her back to the wall, her warm breath against his ear.

“I didn’t really want to talk to him, Jace,” she whispered. “I knew you wouldn’t like it, but I was trapped in here naked. He wants to ask you something, but he’s too afraid, so he wants me to ask you.”

“He’s afraid? Of what?”

“Probably that you’ll punch him in the face again.”

“Smart dude. So what is it?”

“Eric told him you were playing piano on the new album.”

“A couple songs. So?”

“So if you’re playing piano, who’s going to play bass?”

“I’ll record the two tracks separately, and then they’ll mix them.”

“But who will play it live?”